Soon, doctors may be able to predict a patient’s risk of having a second stroke using a commonly performed blood test and the patient’s genetic profile. Researchers have recently linked high level of C-Reactive Protein (CRP) that is found in the blood to an increased risk for recurrent ischemic stroke. CRP is produced in the liver based on a response to inflammation. This protein is checked to measure patients’ risk of developing coronary artery disease. “So we have the genetics influencing CRP levels, which then increases the risk of having a recurrent stroke. Then we went back and said alright, can we predict the increased risk purely based on the genetics, which we were able to do,” Williams said. “There’s this shared genetic susceptibility not only for increased CRP but for increased risk for stroke. We could estimate what’s called a hazard ratio – basically the increased risk for having or not having a second stroke – based on the genetics.” To read more, click here.
